LOVE AND MURDER

July 29, 2013

NEWPORT â€“ Carlton Bickford, 76, of Glover, entered a not guilty plea to first degree murder in the shooting death of his friend Rachel Coburn, 72, of Barton. He was ordered held without bail. Bickford, head bowed, left the crowded courtroom with the despondent air of a man who had already been sentenced.
The murder shocked the area communities where both the defendant and the victim were well known and well liked. Equally surprising was that after the shooting Bickford walked into the offices of the Lyndonville Police Department and confessed. He told police that his name was Carlton Bickford and he had just killed his girlfriend with a shotgun.
For more on this story, read Tuesday's edition of The Newport Daily Express for July 30, 2013.